Capture action items, decisions, and key discussion points in real time during Zoom, Teams, or in-person meetings without missing a beat.
Taking notes during meetings is a constant balancing act. You want to capture every important detail, but typing pulls your focus away from the conversation. You end up either with incomplete notes or you miss critical discussion points because you were busy typing the last one.
Steno solves this by letting you dictate notes in quick bursts. Hold your hotkey for two to five seconds, speak a summary of what was just said, and release. Your note appears in whatever app you have open. The entire process takes a fraction of the time typing would, so you stay present in the conversation.
Open your preferred note-taking app (Notion, Obsidian, Apple Notes, Google Docs, or any app). Create a new document with the meeting title and date. Position the window so you can see it alongside your meeting app. Make sure Steno is running in your menu bar.
When someone makes an important point, hold your Steno hotkey and speak a brief summary. You do not need to transcribe verbatim. Instead, capture the essence: "Marketing wants to push the launch date to March 15th to align with the conference." Release the hotkey and the note appears.
Say "new line" between separate notes and "new paragraph" when the topic changes. This keeps your notes organized without needing to touch the keyboard. You can also say "dash" or "bullet" to create list-style notes.
When a task is assigned, immediately dictate it with the responsible person and due date. For example: "Action item colon Sarah to send revised budget by Friday." Capturing this in the moment ensures nothing falls through the cracks.
After the meeting ends, take two minutes to review your dictated notes. Clean up any transcription issues, add context where needed, and share the notes with attendees. Because you captured notes in real time, your post-meeting review takes minutes instead of the 15-20 minutes it takes to reconstruct notes from memory.
"Product launch moving to March 15th to align with SaaStr conference new line Engineering needs two more weeks for the API integration new line Action item colon Mike to share updated timeline by Wednesday new line Budget approved for the additional QA contractor new paragraph Design review scheduled for next Monday at 2 PM new line Sarah presenting the new onboarding flow mockups"
Product launch moving to March 15th to align with SaaStr conference
Engineering needs two more weeks for the API integration
Action item: Mike to share updated timeline by Wednesday
Budget approved for the additional QA contractor
Design review scheduled for next Monday at 2 PM
Sarah presenting the new onboarding flow mockups
The real savings go beyond time. Notes captured in real time are more accurate and more complete than notes reconstructed from memory after the meeting. Research shows that people forget up to 50% of meeting content within an hour. By dictating notes in the moment, you capture details that would otherwise be lost.
The most effective approach for meeting notes is what we call burst dictation. Instead of trying to take continuous notes, you listen actively and periodically capture key points in short, focused bursts:
This pattern keeps you engaged in the conversation while still producing comprehensive notes. Each burst takes only a few seconds, so you never miss more than a sentence of the ongoing discussion.
During virtual meetings, you have the advantage of being at your Mac. Position your note-taking app next to your meeting window. You can mute yourself while dictating notes to avoid any background pickup. Steno uses your Mac's microphone, which is separate from the meeting app's audio, so there is no interference.
For in-person meetings with your MacBook, you can whisper your notes into the built-in microphone. Steno's Whisper AI transcription handles soft speech well, so you can capture notes discreetly without disrupting the conversation. Alternatively, jot down a few keywords by hand and dictate your full notes immediately after the meeting while everything is fresh.
Set up a simple template with sections for Attendees, Decisions, Action Items, and Notes. This gives your dictated content structure and makes the post-meeting review faster.
Always start action items with "Action item colon" when dictating. This makes them easy to find when scanning your notes later. You can quickly search for "Action item" to extract all tasks.
Focus on capturing outcomes and decisions rather than the back-and-forth discussion. A good meeting note says "Decided to delay launch by two weeks" not a play-by-play of the debate that led to that decision.
Steno keeps a history of your recent dictations. If you accidentally dictated into the wrong window or need to recover a note, check the history in Steno's dashboard to find and copy it.
Yes. Steno uses a hold-to-speak model, so it only activates when you hold the hotkey. During a Zoom call, have a note-taking app open alongside Zoom. When you want to capture a note, hold your hotkey, speak your note, and release. Your Zoom microphone is separate from Steno's recording.
Steno only records when you hold the hotkey, so it will not passively capture the entire meeting. You dictate your own summaries and notes. For in-person meetings, speak at a normal volume directed at your Mac's microphone. Steno's voice profile feature can also help filter your voice from background noise.
Steno works with every macOS app that accepts text: Notion, Obsidian, Apple Notes, Evernote, Bear, Google Docs, Craft, OneNote, and any other app. No integration or plugin required.
Yes. You can whisper your notes while holding the hotkey. Steno's Whisper AI transcription picks up even soft speech accurately, so you can capture notes discreetly without disrupting the conversation.
Better meeting notes mean fewer follow-up emails, fewer missed deadlines, and less time spent asking "what did we decide about that?" Explore our guides on writing emails with voice and responding to Slack messages to build a complete voice-first workflow. You can also read about Steno's voice commands to learn all the formatting options available while dictating.
Download Steno and start capturing meeting notes at the speed of conversation. Free to try on macOS.
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